A pool of blood and water would be the first sight to behold on the floor of the burnt one-bedroom apartment. Some neighbours were seen gathered outside, discussing the fire disaster that claimed the lives of eight members of one family in just one night.
It would perhaps be the most tragic incident to have occurred in Lagos metropolis on that day!
On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, 28-year-old fair-complexioned Kelechukwu Michael went out as usual to his shop in Yaba, Lagos, where he sold textile materials. His 18-year-old wife, Nkiru, having just been delivered of a baby boy three weeks before the incident, was said to be preparing for the upcoming naming ceremony of their second child.
To help in the preparation, Nkiru’s 80-year-old mother, Anthonia Aleh, was said to have come all the way from Nsukka, Enugu State, for the Omugo rites, a popular Igbo culture of a mother nursing her daughter’s baby. She was said to be preparing to return to Enugu on Wednesday with two girls (Odinaka, 12, and Ukamaka, 13) she had brought with her when the tragedy struck.
Those who knew Michael described him as a hardworking man who would do anything to give his family a better life, but on the night of that fateful Tuesday, around 11.30pm, fire engulfed his apartment, killing him, his wife, their two children (one year and eight months old first child, Favour, and the three-week-old boy), his mother-in-law and two other girls in the building.
One other girl, Chidinma, who had survived the incident and rushed to the General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos, also died around 6am on Thursday.
She was the eighth person to have died as a result of the inferno, which was reportedly caused by Aleh lighting a candle and putting it on a table in the living room when she wanted to bathe her daughter’s baby in the night and forgetting to put it off.
Though no one could tell exactly what happened that night (since all eight victims are now dead), it was insinuated that after the candle burned out, the fire ignited the table and engulfed the living room.
When Saturday PUNCH visited the victims’ apartment on Thursday, it was one scene that would melt a stony heart.
The building, marked LASBCA S/L X PCA 10/9/15, was choked between two other buildings in the compound, making room for no ventilation in the apartment and impossible for two persons to pass through the passages between Kelechukwu’s apartment and the other two buildings at the same time. With blood everywhere, cooked rice in the pots in the kitchen, burnt refrigerator, electric iron, sound system, ceiling fans, wooden cupboard, mattresses and broken louvres, the sign of tragedy was written all over the apartment.
Neighbours said that the family could have escaped the inferno but the burglar proof on the windows and doors made it impossible.
“Thieves and armed robbers are disturbing us; that is why there are burglar proofs all over the place,” said one old woman, Tina John.
“Unfortunately, armed robbers did not kill them but an ordinary candle. If there were no burglary proofs, they would have escaped.”
When our correspondents visited, none of the other tenants was around. It was said that their negligence was the secondary cause of the incident and they might have run away for fear of criticism.
Some residents in the area argued that if their co-tenants had offered help when the fire just started, some of the victims would have survived.
A community leader, Chief Kareem Awoyemi, also blamed the victims’ tragedy on the immediate neighbours’ negligence and the poor planning of the buildings in the compound.
He said, “They are not friendly in the building. But as a human being, even if I am not friendly with you, if you are passing through a crisis moment, I would assist you. They should question the co-tenants for negligence. They called me around 3am when the fire had already wreaked great havoc.
“The 58-year-old building is choked between two other buildings. They used to sell spare parts in the place before it was turned to a residential apartment. I also learnt the power supply to the apartment had been cut off, probably because he [Kelechukwu] owed light bills, but he had generators.
“So I am just wondering whether he kept a keg of petrol inside the apartment. I wouldn’t know whether that was why the whole place was burnt like that. The lives lost were just too many. The Community Development Association will set up a committee to probe the incident.”
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, South-West Zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, said the cause of the fire was yet to be known.
At the Trauma and Burns Centre, General Hospital, Gbagada, where the only survivor [now late] had been rushed to, two of Kelechukwu’s younger brothers, Onoja and Ali, who had arrived from Onitsha, sat quietly perhaps thinking of the tragic incident that had befallen their family.
They described the incident that befell the family as a calamity of unimaginable proportion that wiped out a whole generation.
“I am now pressed for words now; it is one of the unimaginable things that has happened to us in our family. Man is like vapour that fades away. I didn’t know I would never see my brother again. No one is alive to tell the actual story of what happened that night, but I want the police to carry out full investigation and let us know what happened. Most of our family members are not aware yet and we have no plans for burial yet,” Onoja said.
“This is tragic, this is tragic, all my two-day efforts are wasted,” a dark middle-aged woman, Christianah Faleti, wailed outside the Trauma and Burns ward at the General Hospital, Gbagada, sitting on the pavement of a gutter.
She was one of the residents that had alerted others in the night of the incident and had also stayed by Chidinma’s bed all through the period she was there. She added she was so troubled that night that she didn’t remember putting on her bra in order to rush the girl to the hospital.
She cried the more, “For three days, I had been with this girl, but now she’s gone. They were all trapped between the kitchen and the bedroom and were burnt. It’s a tragic one. Chidinma was burnt on the face. Her head swelled up. We first rushed her to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, but they rejected her because we couldn’t make any deposit for treatment. It was later that we rushed her here.
“They didn’t take care of her at LUTH. Our slogan should be ‘Save a soul first.’ The girl wouldn’t have died if she had been treated promptly when we took her to LUTH. It was later we dialled 112 and Lagos State Ambulance Service came to carry her.
“Since that midnight, I’ve been here. I don’t usually go out of my room without putting on a bra, but that night, I did. Eight members of a family lost in a fire incident. Chidinma was responding to treatment before she died. I just left her this morning to have my bath and eat. Coming here now, they are telling me she is dead.
“I don’t understand the kind of enmity in their neighbourhood that they couldn’t help the family on time. We also don’t have good government here in Nigeria. Why should we ask for money first before helping ourselves?
“When I was with her, she was just struggling. I would tell her, ‘Chidinma, sorry’ and she would nod her head. But she is no more.”
In the night when the disaster occurred, there were 12 other fire incidents throughout the Lagos metropolis, the Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, said, adding that there was a need for increased vigilance among residents.
“We are still at a loss over why the casualty was that high because the fire itself was not that severe. The kitchen was not affected, so nobody can explain why it was that serious,” he said.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Joe Offor, also confirmed the incident and added that the police had taken the corpses to a mortuary.
Worried about the increasing rate of fire incidents which had caused loss of lives and property in the metropolis, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said he noticed that many of the fire incidents were caused by power outages, particularly at night, as a result of high voltage supply.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information & Strategy, Fola Adeyemi, had said in a statement on Wednesday on behalf of the governor that the incidents were negatively affecting socio-economic activities in Lagos.
“Lagosians must be vigilant, particularly at night, and ensure that they switch off all electrical appliances to prevent fire outbreak arising from power surge,” Ambode said.
He added that the residents of the state should also ensure that they do not store inflammable materials, such as petroleum products, in their homes. He said candles and lanterns should be put off when going to bed, reminding them to contact the state emergency lines, 767 and 112, in case of any crisis.
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